


Here's to You

by srmiller



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: Bawson - Freeform, Established Relationship, F/M, Future Fic, espys, lifetime achievement award, like six years in the future, mostly just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 23:10:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9407033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/srmiller/pseuds/srmiller
Summary: “I don’t want you to mention me,” she told him before he had a chance to compliment her.“Huh?”“Tonight,” she explained as she stepped forward, the heels she wore matching her height to his. “You wouldn’t let me look at your speech so I don’t know if I’m even in it but if I am…don’t.”Mike shifted and leaned against the desk under the mirror he’d been using. “I don’t think you get to tell me what’s in my lifetime achievement speech. When you get yours in a couple years you can decide.”





	

Mike glanced down at his phone and pushed the home button so he could see the time and swore as he pulled the tie out of the collar of his shirt. He wasn’t going to wear one, final answer. “Babe, car’s going to be here any second.”

Ginny appeared from the hotel bathroom looking like a fantasy and five years of being together, and knowing each other for seven, hadn’t dulled his amazement of her by a fraction.

The dress she’d picked was blue, and somewhere in LA Evelyn was screaming because she’d corrected him a couple dozen times over the past month: _It’s not_ blue _Mike, it’s cerulean._

“I don’t want you to mention me,” she told him before he had a chance to compliment her.

“Huh?”

“Tonight,” she explained as she stepped forward, the heels she wore matching her height to his. “You wouldn’t let me look at your speech so I don’t know if I’m even in it but if I am…don’t.”

Mike shifted and leaned against the desk under the mirror he’d been using. “I don’t think you get to tell me what’s in my lifetime achievement speech. When you get yours in a couple years, you can decide.”

She looked away and pressed her lips together as she crossed her arms, something she did when she was upset so Mike reached out and touched a hand to her elbow. “Hey, what’s this about?”

“This is your moment,” she pointed out as if he might not have already realized it. “You shouldn’t have to share this with me too.”

 _Too_.

Because when he’d been interviewed on a sports show about his transition to first base they’d asked about Ginny. Because when he had an amazing night they asked him about Ginny’s short trip to the DL. Because when the trade deadline came around he got more questions about her contract than his.

And sure, sometimes it pissed him off because he’d worked damn hard to get to where he was but if there was one toipic he never ran out of things to talk about, it was Ginny. So, he could put up with a few stray questions if it meant giving her the recognition she deserved.

Mike put his other hand on her arm and tugged her forward. “You know I don’t mind sharing what I’ve got with you.”

“Me stealing your shirts isn’t the same thing as me taking away from your big moment,” she argued. “Just, please. Take the moment to bask in your awesomeness.”

“I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I do that pretty much every day anyway.”

Ginny laughed, which had been the point and he watched her shoulders relax. “You could pretend to listen to me, just once.”

“Why ruin a good thing,” he asked with a smile as he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Now, are you ready to go and prove to this stupid town how we’re still the hottest couple in baseball?”

She shook her head as she grabbed her clutch. “We’re the only couple in baseball.”

“I wouldn’t hold onto that argument for much longer,” Mike told her as he checked his phone, a text from the driver said he was downstairs. “Considering how much Timber has been talking about Pallup I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

Ginny held onto his hand as he pulled her out of the hotel room. “You’re kidding! They can’t date.”

Mike snorted.

“Timber is a Giant and Pallup is a Dodger.”

He pushed the elevator button to go down. “It’s Romeo and Juliette all over again.”

“You know that was a tragedy.”

“Thanks, Baker, I went to high school too.”

“Half a million years ago,” she muttered under her breath, barely able to hold back a smile at her own joke.

“Hilarious,” he shook his head as they stepped into the elevator. “Those never get old.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck companionably as the elevator slid down silently. Automatically, his arm went around her waist.

“Never as old as you, anyway.”

With a groan Mike dropped his arm and stepped out of the elevator as the doors slid open. Her laughter followed him.

“Last one of the night,” she promised as she linked her hand with his.

“I’ve heard that before.”

She laughed again, and he could taste it on his lips when she kissed him under the street lights.

 

“Why do I feel like I’m more nervous about this than you are?” Ginny hissed as Livan came up to begin the presentation for Mike’s award.

“Because you’re a weirdo,” Mike whispered back.

She hit him.

“You do realize this is a _once_ in a lifetime opportunity, right? Like, in a never going to happen again sort of way.”

“I’m aware,” he answered dryly as the jumbo screen played an uncomfortably large montage of his career. It was weird to think just yesterday he’d played in his last All-Star game, that this would be the last season of his career in baseball and the biggest surprise was he was okay with it.

It was time.

“And without further ado,” Livan was saying. “Mike Lawson.”

The entire crowd stood up as one, applauding and cheering wildly but all Mike could see was Ginny smiling with her cherry painted lips and kissing him, long used to sharing affection in front of the cameras.

“Congrats, old man.”

“Thanks, Rookie.”

She laughed as he kissed her again and then headed up the stairs to take the trophy from the kid Mike had once-okay, many times-thought about murdering.

“Thank you,” Mike spoke to microphone. The crowd started to die down and everyone settled back into their seats. “Thank you.”

He looked down at the trophy, lighter than he would have thought it would be. “These usually go to people a hell of a lot older than I am. Or maybe I’m just older than I realized.”

The crowd laughed and Mike grinned. “Probably the latter, but I can’t thank everyone enough for this honor. I’ve spent my life in San Diego, and there were times when it was the hardest thing I’ve ever survived, but more often than not it was the best thing to ever happen to me. Not the least of which was bringing the most important person in my life, into my life.”

Mike risked a glance at Ginny who looked both awed and irritated in a way only she could accomplish. “She’s glaring at me right now because she told me on the way here to keep her out of my acceptance speech and I’m totally going to pay for this later but…But there are some things you can’t leave out of your life story.

“I can’t leave out the Padres, who have been my home and my family for longer than I deserved. I can’t leave out Al, who has been my manager and my ally and a father who knocked sense into me when I needed it. I can’t leave out Blip, who has been my friend and my brother.

“So, it stands to reason I couldn’t leave out Ginny Baker who is the point on which my entire life shifted and changed for the better. When she joined our team, someone told me she was going to be my legacy, this athlete who came into the game and didn’t just change it, but made it better. At the time, I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I thought I knew what my legacy was going to be,” he absently touched the ring on his left hand, “A world championship for one, but if the only thing people remember me as is the catcher who caught for the best pitcher in baseball I’d be all right with that.”

He paused and looked down at the trophy, felt the smirk the cameras wouldn’t be able to miss and looked back up. “But if you want to remember me as kickass player who gave blood, sweat, and heart to a game which has meant the world to me, than I guess that would be all right too. Thank you again to the Padres, to the fans, and to the dreamers who want to grow up to wear jersey with their name on the back of it: You can do it, you just got to be willing to fight for it and fight hard. Trust me, it's worth it.”

The crowd stood again, cheering and hollering as they applauded, but Mike picked Ginny out of the crowd and winked at her once before walking off the stage.

In the press room Mike fielded questions about his speech, about the award and what it meant to him, and of course about Ginny.

“When are you guys going to get married?” one of the reporters asked.

“Are we not married?” Mike asked, feigning confusion. “Shit, we keep forgetting to put that on our to do list during the off-season.”

The reporter tried to follow up but Mike called on another person and the press conference ended shortly after.

A few hours later at the hotel Ginny was refilling their glasses of champagne while wearing his dress shirt and little else. He watched her as she glanced through her phone which had been ignored for the better part of the last hour.

“Anything interesting?”

“Just a text from Evelyn about that reporter who asked about us getting married.”

“Yeah?” Mike asked, only half interested because his incredibly gorgeous girlfriend was standing in front of him half-dressed and sipping champagne.

“Her exact text is ‘what the fuck is wrong with these guys it’s none of their business also when the fuck are you guys getting married?”

Mike laughed as Ginny set her phone down and picked up his glass before walking towards him. He took the glass and she settled onto the bed next to him. “What are you going to tell her?”

“I’ll just ignore it,” Ginny shrugged. “And she’ll get the hint eventually.”

Mike snorted, unimpressed with Ginny’s conclusion. For as long as he’d known her, Evelyn Sanders had never given up on anything. Both he and Ginny had told Blip and his wife that they had no plans to get married. He and Ginny had the conversation multiple times over the years, checking in with each other, and each time they’d agreed they didn’t feel the need to get married or have any kind of ceremony.

They did wear their championship rings on the ring fingers of their left hands, a symbolic gesture and a public one. Even if there wasn’t a piece of paper filed in a courthouse they wanted the world to know they belonged to each other.

“It’s going to be so weird,” she commented softly. “Stepping up onto the mound knowing you’re not going to be there, having my back.”

He’d been at first base for the past four years, Livan taking over the position of catcher when Mike's knees couldn’t take the strain anymore. “Hey, you know you’re going to be in good hands with Livan.”

“I know,” she admitted with a sigh. “But it’s not going to be the same.”

“I should hope not, because if you’re calling him to the mound in the middle of a game to tell him how horny you are we’re going to have to have a conversation.”

Ginny laughed. “That was one time.”

“It was a memorable time.”

She didn’t disagree as she took another sip from the glass in her hand. “I’m just saying, it’ll be different.”

“We still got the rest of the season and hopefully the post-season to go.” He picked up her hand and held it in his. “Besides, it’s not like you’re getting rid of me, we do live together after all and you know you’re going to get tired of me hanging around the house trying to write the damn book.”

The book he’d agreed to, much to his regret, was an autobiography of his life and his career and if Ginny had a problem with him putting her in his acceptance speech she wasn’t going to want to read the book when it came out. The outline he’d worked out with his publisher already had more of her than was probably warranted.

“True,” she agreed. “I always wanted to end up on episode of Snapped.”

“If you’re gong to murder anyone, I’d hope it would be me.”

“Promise,” she kissed him. “So, you take a year to write the book, then what?”

“Oscar talked to me about putting the uniform back on as a coach.”

Ginny sat up straight, delight written all over her face. “Really? That’s amazing! Are you going to accept?”

“I’m thinking about it,” he admitted, and he couldn’t argue the appeal of staying on the Padres until he was gray and more arthritic than he already was. “Leaning towards it, actually.”

“I think it’s a great idea and I’m all for it.”

“You’re not ready to get rid of me?” he asked, trying to make it sound like a joke even though there was a part of him which would always worry she would leave. How could he not when neither his father nor mother stuck around.

She took his glass and set both it and hers on the bedside table before swinging her leg over his to straddle him. “I love you Mike Lawson, and as long as we’re in this together, as long we treat each other the way we have for the past five years, there’s no reason I’d ever want to get rid of you. You’re it for me, old man.”

“Me too, Rookie.”


End file.
